We went to St Louis, Missouri to meet Professor Dan Haybron, who’s a big noise in the philosophy of happiness. He had some fascinating ideas including the ‘experience machine’ thought experiment and that maybe it’s OK not to be happy. Here’s the full interview with Byron.

On our quest to find out more about happiness we went to meet the wonderful Judith Bell, head of Rewire Leadership, an expert on interpersonal relationships. She works with clients including NASA, helping people to work better together by giving them the tools to improve their wellbeing.

Here’s Byron interviewing her in Marin, California.

-Dave

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Here’s a taste of us spending a week mucking about in a space provided by the lovely people at the Bikeshed Theatre in Exeter. Development time and space really helps us develop the show and try out ideas, most of which get rejected, especially Byron playing guitar.

Time is an executioner. How do we make the most of the fleeting conundrum of our lives? Byron is a cynic who is sometimes pathologically sad. He’s on a mission to find out what happiness is, how to attain it and how to sustain it. He’s interviewed experts and tried everything from meditation to cage fighting on his quest to discover the holy grail of human contentment. Join Byron as he attempts to abandon his scepticism and confront his fears.

The opinion we value the most is yours. Suggest activities that might make Byron happy on our twitter page and we’ll film them and post them here

Live Before You Die is a collaborative project between performance artist Byron Vincent and writer/filmmaker Dave McGinn twitter.com/davemcginn

Byron you miserable sod. As if sardonic banter and a copy of the god delusion are gonna save you from the razor at your wrist? Joyless atheism and cod scientific assertions of human purposelessness may score you points with pissed hipsters, but you’re hardly a bucket of sunshine mate. What if you’ve picked the wrong team? Harem pants look really comfy, actually. What if your precious cynicism’s just a prophylactic to true contentment? If everything’s so arbitrary, what’s with all the fear? Shape up son. Time’s an executioner. You better live, before you die.